Mad Boys (Blue Ivy Prep, #2)(84)

“Probably not. My name is Murray Creglin, I’m head of the security here at Blue Ivy Prep.”

“Awesome.” I tried to sit up, ‘cause having so many people looming over me while that smell kept randomly assaulting me was not my idea of a good time.

“Easy,” Aubrey said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

“Hang tight, Ace. The ambulance is almost here.”

Yeah, no ambulance.

“Miss Crosse.” I focused on the security guy—Creglin? Wasn’t that the guy from that show… “We need to ask you a few questions. The police are also going to have questions for you.”

“Head hurts,” I said. Wait, why did my head hurt? The destruction in my room trickled back into place along with the filth on the bed itself. “My guitar is gone.”

“We have your guitar,” someone else said. There were too many people in the room. But great.

“You sure, they hurt one and took the other…someone took it…not even sure how they got in.”

“Have you been having any issues here at the school? Any threats?”

“No, not really…”

“Well, there was the fire,” Aubrey said pointedly, but she wasn’t looking at me. No, she stared at Creglin. She was definitely in fire mode. Oh man, I hope she and Forrest hadn’t broken up. “There have been a few other issues, but our management team has handled it.”

“We’ll want to talk to them,” Creglin said. “Now we checked the door. The electronic lock records someone accessing it but not the number of the keycard.”

“It had to be a master then,” Ramsey said. “All the RAs have masters.”

“How you got in before,” I said, flickering at Lachlan. “Not the first time you tried to sneak up on me.”

“Hey.” His expression tightened as a wounded note crept into his voice.

My eyes were fluttering close. “Hardly the first time you went after me.”

“Mr. Nash,” Creglin said. “Maybe we should step away and have a conversation.” There were more words, but my eyelids were too damn heavy.

The next time I opened them, I was in a hospital room. Fuck, I hated these places. Aubrey sat in the chair next to the bed, scrolling her phone and she leaned forward as soon as I twitched.

“You are in so much trouble.” Naked worry filled her expression. “I have to get the doctor—don’t move.”

Wasn’t really planning on it, but she didn’t leave me alone. As soon as she was out the door, Jonas was in. We didn’t really have time to talk, because there were so many people filling the room.

A doctor. A nurse. Someone else. They were all talking, and my head thudded so bad.

“You do have a concussion and you have lost consciousness for some time twice, we’re going to keep you here for at least twenty-four hours…” Around and around it went. The concussion had been serious, but x-rays showed my cranium was intact. They had not identified the weapon yet.

The cops were here.

Fun times.

Twenty-four hours later, Jonas and Aubrey walked with my wheelchair-borne ass to a private entrance where a privately driven SUV pulled up.

My head still hurt, but I hadn’t passed out again and I didn’t want to throw up anymore. Good times. Neither Aubrey nor Jonas would leave, and Aubrey was seething, even when I thought things were going well.

It wasn’t until we were back on campus that Jonas said, “I called Ramsey; he’s making sure the hall is clear, and Lachlan will clear the stairwells to get you upstairs. Ramsey said you can stay with him if you’re not up for the stairs.”

Yeah. No.

“I’ll be fine going up the stairs.” If I wasn’t, I’d fake it until I made it. “What did the police say?”

“They cleared Lachlan,” Jonas told me.

“Cleared him of what?”

“Of being the sack of shit that broke into your room, wrecked it, and hurt you,” Aubrey said. “So instead, he’s just the guy who assaults you on the regular while being a fucking liar —”

“Aubrey,” I said slowly and she held up a hand.

“No, Kait. You can accept them at whatever word you want, even Jonas here. He seems to have at least developed a fucking clue.” Yeah, she was pissed. Two Kaits. No KC. No babe. Dammit. The heat of her anger seemed to make the pulse of my headache intensify. “The lies? The assaults? The stalking?”

“I know.” I squeezed her hand. “They didn’t know I didn’t know.”

“I don’t care,” Aubrey stressed that last word with enough force to make it leave a physical imprint in my soul. “They know how to use words. Whether they realized you knew or not, they knew.” She wasn’t staring at me, but at Jonas.

“Leave him alone,” I said. “Jonas—”

“She’s right,” he said abruptly, and he might have moved except I put my free hand on his. “We knew. We should have said something—I did. I did the first day we met, but you threw the note away.”

Note? What note? Was I forgetting something like he gave me a note?

“The day we met,” he said, shifting in his seat so I didn’t have to strain to look at him. “In the hallway not far from your room.”